hig-components-status
by raintree-technologyhig-components-status is an Apple HIG guidance skill for status and progress UI components, including progress indicators, bars, spinners, status bars, and activity rings. Use it for UI design decisions about determinate vs. indeterminate feedback, loading states, and where status should appear in Apple-style interfaces.
This skill scores 68/100, which means it is listable but best presented as a focused, moderately documented HIG reference rather than a fully polished workflow package. Directory users can expect clear trigger cues for status/progress UI questions and enough guidance to reduce guesswork, but they should also expect limited supporting assets and some reliance on existing context.
- Strong triggerability: the frontmatter explicitly maps the skill to progress indicator, progress bar, loading spinner, status bar, and activity ring queries.
- Operational guidance is concrete: it distinguishes determinate vs. indeterminate progress and recommends when to use progress bars over spinners.
- Good install-decision value for a narrow use case: it includes cross-references to related HIG skills and tells agents to check existing design context before asking questions.
- No install command, scripts, references, or support files, so the workflow appears self-contained but lightly packaged.
- The skill body is descriptive but not fully fleshed out in the evidence shown, so edge-case handling and deeper implementation guidance may be limited.
Overview of hig-components-status skill
hig-components-status is an Apple HIG guidance skill for status and progress UI components: progress indicators, progress bars, spinners, status bars, and activity rings. Use the hig-components-status skill when you need a design decision, not just a definition—especially for choosing between determinate and indeterminate feedback, placing loading states, or explaining how a status component should behave in an Apple-style interface.
Best fit for product and UI decisions
This skill is most useful for designers, PMs, and AI agents drafting UI guidance for Apple ecosystem apps. It answers the practical question, “What status pattern should I use here, and why?” rather than generating generic UI copy. If you are deciding whether a process should show progress, a spinner, or an activity ring, this skill is the faster path to a grounded recommendation.
What the skill is optimizing for
The core job is to reduce uncertainty for users during waiting, tracking, or completion states. The guidance pushes you toward visible, contextual feedback: show progress when duration is knowable, use indeterminate indicators only when you cannot estimate completion, and keep the indicator close to the content it represents.
What makes it different
Unlike a broad “loading state” prompt, hig-components-status is scoped to status components and HIG-specific tradeoffs. It is useful when you want consistent Apple-style behavior, especially where progress semantics, layout placement, and clarity matter more than visual decoration.
How to Use hig-components-status skill
Install and load it in your workflow
Use the hig-components-status install flow in your skill manager, or install from the repository path if your environment supports direct skill adds. The skill lives at skills/hig-components-status, and the most important entry point is SKILL.md. Because there are no helper scripts or reference folders in this repo snapshot, the main value is in reading the skill text closely and applying it directly.
Give the skill a concrete UI problem
The best hig-components-status usage starts with a specific scenario. Good inputs describe the operation, whether progress is measurable, where the status appears, and what platform or component you are designing. For example: “Design the loading state for a 30-second file upload in an iPad app with inline feedback” is stronger than “Help with loading UI.”
Read the right parts first
Start with SKILL.md, then extract the decision rules that apply to your case: when to use determinate vs indeterminate status, where to place the indicator, and what user expectation the component should create. If your project has .claude/apple-design-context.md, check it before asking follow-up questions so the skill can avoid duplicating known context.
Turn a rough prompt into a better one
A useful prompt for hig-components-status should include:
- task type: download, upload, sync, background processing, or fitness tracking
- certainty: known percentage, estimated duration, or unknown timing
- surface: inline area, toolbar, panel, or full-screen state
- user impact: blocking, non-blocking, or informational
- Apple context: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, or cross-platform Apple UI
Example: “Using hig-components-status, recommend the right progress pattern for a background photo sync in macOS. The sync duration is unpredictable, but the user should see that work is active without a false promise of completion.”
hig-components-status skill FAQ
Is hig-components-status just a prompt template?
No. It is more valuable as a decision guide for Apple HIG-aligned status patterns. A plain prompt can produce an answer, but hig-components-status helps you choose the right component behavior and avoid mixing up determinate and indeterminate states.
When should I not use this skill?
Do not use hig-components-status for general navigation, form validation, or unrelated system widgets. If your problem is about gestures, widgets, complications, or HealthKit-driven activity data, another skill may fit better. This one is strongest when the design question is specifically about status, loading, or progress feedback.
Is it beginner-friendly?
Yes, if you already know the UI task you need to solve. The hig-components-status skill is beginner-friendly because the main decision tree is simple: known progress gets a progress bar, unknown duration gets an indeterminate indicator, and long operations should not leave users guessing.
What does “Apple HIG” change in practice?
It changes the defaults. The hig-components-status guide is not about inventing a custom loader; it is about matching Apple expectations for clarity, placement, and perceived responsiveness. That matters most when you want your UI to feel native and avoid misleading users with the wrong status treatment.
How to Improve hig-components-status skill
Provide the missing decision inputs
To get better results from hig-components-status for UI Design, specify what the user is waiting for, how long it takes, and whether progress can be measured. The skill works best when you state the operation in one sentence and include the UI surface. “Syncing notes, estimate unknown, show inline feedback in a list row” is much better than “make it feel loading.”
Watch for the common failure mode
The usual mistake is asking for a visual without defining the semantics. If you do not say whether the process is determinate, the model may default to a spinner. If progress is measurable, say so explicitly and ask for the most trustworthy feedback pattern.
Iterate on placement and wording
If the first output feels generic, refine the prompt with layout constraints and user expectations: where the indicator appears, whether content is replaceable, and whether the state should reassure, delay, or confirm completion. Those details help the skill produce a more useful Apple HIG recommendation instead of a broad UI suggestion.
Use the result as a design review checklist
After the first answer, check whether the proposed status component matches the task, avoids false certainty, and sits near the content it describes. If not, re-run the hig-components-status skill with a narrower scenario and the missing constraint. The more explicit the progress context, the better the recommendation.